Acis et Galatée
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| Title: | Acis et Galatée |
Title page of the libretto, Paris 1686 |
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| Shape: | “Pastorale heroïque” in a prologue and three acts |
| Original language: | French |
| Music: | Jean-Baptiste Lully |
| Libretto : | Jean-Galbert de Campistron |
| Premiere: | September 6, 1686 |
| Place of premiere: | Anet Castle |
| Playing time: | about 2 hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Sicily, mythical time |
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Acis et Galatée is a pastoral opera (original name: "Pastorale heroïque", LWV 73) in a prologue and three acts by Jean-Baptiste Lully with a libretto by Jean-Galbert de Campistron . The first performance took place on September 6, 1686 in Anet Castle.
layout
For two centuries, the pastoral genre had been a model for loving feelings presented in light tones, and Lully had actually largely abandoned it since George Dandin in favor of a tragic style. In the Bourgeois gentilhomme, Molière had his Monsieur Jourdain ask: “Pourquoi toujours des bergers?” (Why always Schäfer?) And La Fontaine couldn't help but combine musical theater with bucolic - Lully disliked this, so he avoided him as a librettist . What made Campistron's libretto compatible with Lully's line was the figure of the Cyclops Polyphème , which he built into the traditional scenario : threatening, terrifying and at the same time pitifully cumbersome. The figures initially act according to the usual scheme: The nymph Scylla remains indifferent to the wooing of one shepherd Télème, while the other, Acis, initially secretly, then openly finds the affection of the nymph Galatée. But his rival Polyphème does not allow a happy ending. He smashes a rock on Acis and leaves Galatée in despair. But their lament touches Neptune, who brings Acis back to life and transforms it into an immortal river.
In the three acts, Lully saved a lot that his contemporaries found entertaining, but which now seems lengthy. This won the orchestra, which was allowed to play unleashed in places, young and happy like never before with Lully. The prologue announces a nice treat, there is no hint of anything that could give the pastoral the attribute "heroic". It comes with seven partly short dances, otherwise there are only two per act, the last of which with an extensive 166-bar Passacaille in D minor. It is unusual that Lully has the male heroes of the shepherds sing in a high register: Haute-Contre . A bass, on the other hand, is polypheme. When he is made ridiculous by a flute teasing mockery, this is one of those maddened tones that were absolutely new and had an effect right up until the operetta era . There are also deeper tones in Polyphème's appendix and the music around them. So they break into the world of shepherds several times and the bass is only regained for the friendliness with Neptune, who makes his son forget. The final, sung and danced Wasserwesen-Fest in D minor also dissolves a D major chaconne of the second act, which is remarkable in one respect: only a good third of its 90 bars is sung, but none for the remaining instrumental passages Dance provided. Apparently Lully could rely on the fact that at these points the singer Marthe Le Rochois would cast a spell over the audience just through her presence on the stage, as she experienced at the performance of Armide . Here, as in the final Passacaille, the lightness of the text contrasts with the solemnity of the music.
orchestra
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
Work history
Lully created this opera for a performance in Schloss Anet . It was ordered by Louis II, Duke of Vendôme , who, according to the Marquis de La Fare, raised 100,000 livres for this . The libretto was supplied by Jean-Galbert de Campistron through Jean Racine's mediation , as Lully had fallen out with Philippe Quinault , who had previously written most of his texts.
The basis for the material are the mythological figures Akis and Galateia , who appear in Ovid's Metamorphoses . Campistron enriched the material with numerous additional people, including the couple Telemus and Scylla.
The Dauphin was present at the premiere on September 6, 1686 , which is reflected in the prologue of the work. The opera was repeated five times in Anet and was finally performed in Paris on September 17th. The relatively simple stage set-up was adopted - Schloss Anet had no theater - which made scenes with sophisticated stage machinery superfluous from the outset. There were several revivals up to the middle of the 18th century. An early performance outside of France came about by Darmstadt's Landgrave Ernst Ludwig : As part of his “Cavalier Tour” , he was able to attend the premiere at the court of Louis XIV , had the sheet music obtained and the opera was performed in 1687 for his own wedding.
After the work was forgotten, it was revived in 1930 by Pierre Monteux in Amsterdam. A recording by Marc Minkowski was made in 1998.
Acis et Galatée was Lully's last completed opera. He began composing another tragédie lyrique , but died over it in March 1687.
Recordings
- 1975? - Lionel Salter (conductor), Serenata of London.
Duncan Robertson (Acis), Teresa Cahill (Galatée), Michael Rippon (Polyphème), Martyn Hill (Tircis), Patricia Clark (Aminte), Stephen Roberts (Neptune).
Live, in concert from London; Abstract by Lionel Salter.
Open reel tape mr. tape 3745. - 1996 - Marc Minkowski (conductor), Les Musiciens du Louvre -Grenoble.
Monique Simon (Diane and Najade 2), Mireille Delunsch (L'Abondance, Aminte and Najade 1), Howard Crook (Apollon, priests Junos and Télème), Thierry Félix (forest god and Neptune), Francoise Manet (Dryad and Scylla), Jean -Paul Fouchécourt (Acis), Véronique Gens (Galatée), Laurent Naouri (Polyphème), Rodrigo de Pozo (Tircis).
Live, in concert.
Deutsche Grammophon CD: 453497-2.
Web links
- Acis et Galatée, LWV 73 : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Libretto (French), Paris 1686. Digitized in the Internet Archive
- Acis et Galatée (Jean-Baptiste Lully) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna
- Action of en at Opera-Guide target page due to URL conversion currently not available
- Discography of Acis et Galatée at Operadis
Individual evidence
- ^ Philippe Beaussant : Lully ou Le Musicien du Soleil. Gallimard / Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, [Paris] 1992, p. 552.
- ^ A b Philippe Beaussant: Lully ou Le Musicien du Soleil. Gallimard / Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, [Paris] 1992, pp. 706–709.
- ^ A b c Rebecca Harris-Warrick: Dance and Drama in French Baroque Opera. A history. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2016, ISBN 978-1-107-13789-9 , p. 192.
- ^ A b Emmanuel Haymann: Lulli , Flammarion, [Paris] 1991, p. 257.
- ^ A b c Rebecca Harris-Warrick: Dance and Drama in French Baroque Opera. A history. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2016, ISBN 978-1-107-13789-9 , p. 193.
- ^ Rebecca Harris-Warrick: Dance and Drama in French Baroque Opera. A history. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2016, ISBN 978-1-107-13789-9 , p. 194.
- ^ A b Rebecca Harris-Warrick: Dance and Drama in French Baroque Opera. A history. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2016, ISBN 978-1-107-13789-9 , p. 195.
- ^ Rebecca Harris-Warrick: Dance and Drama in French Baroque Opera. A history. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2016, ISBN 978-1-107-13789-9 , p. 198.
- ^ Herbert Schneider : Acis et Galatée. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Volume 3: Works. Henze - Massine. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-492-02413-0 , pp. 612-613.
- ↑ Jérôme de La Gorce: L'opéra à Paris au temps de Louis XIV. Histoire d'un théâtre , Paris 1992, p. 76.
- ↑ Beate Sorg: Christoph Graupner's music on ceremonial occasions at the court of the Landgraves of Hesse-Darmstadt: Between “Joyful cheering shouts” and “Humble devotion and duty before the face of the Lord”. Norderstedt 2015, ISBN 978-3-7347-9923-5 , p. 90.
- ↑ a b Jean-Baptiste Lully. In: Andreas Ommer: Directory of all complete opera recordings (= Zeno.org . Volume 20). Directmedia, Berlin 2005.